“Thoughts in Christ”

It’s said that the writer of this letter, the youngest of Christ’s apostles and the only one to survive premature death, would be borne by loving hands to the place of worship. More than a hundred years of age, he would keep repeating: “Little children, love one another.” This recalls the last years of both metropolitans Leonty and Ireney.…

With each visit to our Cleveland Museum of Art, I make time to stop at the early Christian art exhibit. Inside are several ivory carvings about four to six inches in height. All depict a young beardless Christ. He is trudging forward, gripping the legs of a lamb hung across His shoulders. One might only imagine the impact on Christians in the early…

The greatest joy of my priesthood is to lift up a newborn infant, naked as at birth, holding him above the holy water before plunging him or her down as though in liquid burial and raising the child washed clean and given a new, spiritual birth. “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  Alleluia!”  If only it were possible…

Whenever St. Paul is writing about life and death – and he does it quite a bit – it’s not so much the vital signs measured by physicians and nurses, such as oxygen levels, blood and brain functions, but rather the state of one’s soul measured by sinfulness and purity. Clinically, our death is out of our hands, unless of course we commit…

Wisdom is the requirement not just to listen to the gospel, the normal translation, nor to read it ourselves at home or in the English translation provided in those churches praying in other languages, but to grasp the inner meaning. The inner sense comes from wisdom [Sophia. Premudrost.] Sophia means the deep things of God which we understand not…

All Orthodox Christian theologians return again and again to these phrases from the story of creation. They explain the difference between “image” and “likeness,” they proclaim God as Trinity, they present the Holy Spirit in the human being, and they anticipate the great doctrine of iconography, affirming the Son of God, one of the Holy…

The great councils of the holy Church would begin by affirming a continuity with past councils, teachings of the holy fathers and sacred scriptures as accepted and endorsed by the Church. We hear it affirmed and proclaimed at the conclusion of the Sunday of Orthodoxy vespers each year during Great Lent. This truism is so fundamental one would think…

Civilization advances in civility not all at once, not even in gradual progressions of sense and sensitivity, but rather in spasms of shock, outrage, reflection, remorse, regret and reevaluation. These spurts are what make civilization civilized. How did it happen that the ancient Roman Empire brought to a close the atrocious entertainment in their…

In the second decade of the twentieth century, western civilization had its fill of warfare. There was formed a League of Nations to seek ways to overcome separations and to live in harmony. Protestant leaders in Europe felt it time to imitate that vision among all Christians, a rather quixotic quest. Nevertheless, invitations were sent to…

The feast of Holy Transfiguration falls near the end of the liturgical year. Only the Dormition of the Theotokos follows, to complete and close the cycle. Why now? The time of the event comes six days following the confession of St. Peter [Matthew 17:1, Mark 9:2], or “about eight days” [Luke 9:28], although that doesn’t fix the date precisely.…

What is prayer? St. Isaac, an expert instructor, offers a broad definition: “Any conversation” [with God] that is secret, inward and positive, and any “reflection on the spiritual.” To be a true conversation, it has to include the Other. It’s not a prayer if it’s a monologue, when the one praying is not listening for a response. At first…

Too often Orthodoxy has been patronized by those who know little about us. The fault is our own. We allow others to describe and to define who we are. What they see are immigrants intent on perpetuating cult and customs brought from the Old World to the New – funny foods and folk frolics. At long last Orthodox Christianity has been acknowledged as…

This sin of yearning to have power attacks the serious Christian and can become an obsession. It appears in the prayer that all Orthodox Christians know by heart, since it’s recited countless times throughout the Great Lent. I lift it up to the Lord all year long because it has such depth and meaningfulness. Why “lust for power”? Why not just…

First to note for our times is that Thomas Jefferson and his peers assumed a Creator responsible for all creation.  Given their times, a rational Creator would endow the highest form of creation with attributes of life; therefore, an ideal government would affirm life as a God-given right, together with the freedom to experience and express life to…

Beyond evidence that no person, be he bishop or patriarch, is infallible even when speaking officially, the blunt comment above from St. Paul expresses two ways to experience and witness to the one true faith. Sts. Peter and Paul are portrayed on our icons in an embrace of love, and that without reservation or hesitation. Their spiritual bond is…

When we hear the priestly prayer at the conclusion of a funeral or requiem inviting the beloved to the “bosom of Abraham,” we understand that as his children we too have passed through a lifetime where we had no permanent residence. Like our great spiritual father, we too have left behind a foreign land, even if we had been born in it.…

The disciples were unwilling to realize that our Lord Jesus was explaining to them His departure. Love wanted Him to stay, but Truth was speaking wisdom, and it caused them great grief. “Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart” (16:6). Such overwhelming sorrow that it could lead to a state of deep depression. Who of…

May 21, 2011, has come and gone:  Christ did not return, the rapture did not begin, and the world did not end.  The warning of the senescent preacher’s catastrophic prediction did not happen.  Sensible people had not taken seriously his dire forecast of the world’s end.  Yet it is fascinating to realize how many did indeed prepare for all life…

At the start of the holiest part of the Divine Liturgy, we hear the call from the celebrant: “Let us lift up our hearts!” How do we do that? We know how it feels to be down-hearted. For some reason we may be sad and forlorn. We had been hurt by some event or person. Or maybe we are out of work, we failed an exam, or a blow to our pride and…

We chant the Nicene Creed at every baptism and Divine Liturgy. It is mandatory for membership in the Holy Orthodox faith. Unless a person openly confesses belief in every word, he or she does not belong to the true faith in Jesus Christ. When we sing the glorious words above heard after midnight on Holy Pascha night, we proclaim the conditions for…